Nine members of a prominent Mormon family in northern Mexico, all women and children, were gunned down on Nov. 4 in territory whose control is disputed by the Sinaloa Cartel and the La Linea militia.

Mexico, which has experienced highcrime for over a decade, has seen violence surge in recent weeks. On Oct. 17, a shootout in the city of Culiacan involving the Sinaloa Cartel led officials to release from custody Ovidio Guzman, the son of jailed drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

In the context of so much bloodshed, the LeBaron killings are both highly unusual and tragically quotidian.

Along with the Romneys relatives of Sen. Mitt Romney, whose father was born in Mexico the LeBarons are among the most storied families in Mormon history.

Members of Utah's Latter-Day Saints community emigrated to Mexico in the 1880s to follow their religious beliefs by living in polygamous families, which was illegal in the United States. Polygamy was illegal in Mexico, too, but the government there offered a flexible definition of family and did not enforce its anti-polygamy laws.

Alma "Dayer" LeBaron, the patriarch, was born in 1886 and grew up as a Latter-Day Saint in Colonia Dubln, Chihuahua. In 1904, he married a women from nearby Colonia Jurez. She left him when he sought a polygamous marriage.

LeBaron and his big family returned to Mexico in 1924 to find that their Latter-Day Saint neighbors did not welcome their polygamy. So LeBaron established his own colony, called LeBaron, in Chihuahua, Mexico. Today it stretches approximately six miles along a municipal highway and is four miles wide, surrounded by fields. LeBaron also began his own Mormon church.

The LeBaron colony's land may have been illegally purchased from this neighboring land grant. Area peasants called the LeBarons "American invaders" and destroyed their fences. This allowed cattle into the LeBaron's fields, damaging their crops.

Judges in Mexico, however, sided with the LeBarons, whom they saw as productive members of the local economy. The land clashes between Mormon and Mexican ranchers have largely dissipated, though a flare-up occurred just last year.

After Alma Dayer LeBaron died in 1951, his sons Joel, Ross, Ervil and Verlan disagreed over the future of the church Alma had established, leading to violence within the family and the formation of new fundamentalist groups.

Ervil LeBaron was arrested and convicted for the 1972 murder of his brother Joel. That verdict was later overturned, but in 1981, a Utah court convicted Ervil of a different murder. He died in prison in 1981.

LeBaron and Sicilia reportedly fell out in 2012. But after the murder of Julin's cousin and other family members on Nov. 4, Sicilia wrote a condolence letter encouraging Julin to "uncover the barbaric reality."

Integration in Mexico

As their peace activism shows, the LeBarons are more integrated in Mexican society than other religious minority groups I've studied.